Infiniti Emerg-E Concept

Mid-Engine, Range-Extended Hybrid Supercar Could Become Reality

Infiniti's booth candy for the 2012 Geneva auto show is a 402-hp, range-extended electric supercar concept called the Emerg-E. Despite its prominence in the U.S., the Infiniti brand only recently launched in Europe, in 2008, and most potential buyers remain ignorant of its existence. An eye-popping, mid-engined hybrid like the Emerg-E may help change that.Actually, this car is more than just booth candy. Infiniti has clear intentions to take the Emerg-E past the concept stage and into prototype form in short order. The car under the show lights is static, but two real runners will be built for hard test-track use by engineers and even journalists come this summer. Infiniti's head of advanced product, Francois Bancon, tells us it could very well be turned into a production halo car for the brand by 2016.The Emerg-E is already the result of some 18 months of engineering effort, so we can take its performance figures pretty seriously -- and they're pretty serious. Infiniti is claiming a 0-to-60 mph time of 4.0 seconds, and its pair of electric motors has to move only 3550 pounds, thanks in part to a carbon-fiber skin. Full EV range is pegged at 30 miles, drawing out to 300 miles when its 1.2-liter three-cylinder range-extending engine is running.The Emerg-E is a genuinely global effort. Though conceived and strategized in Japan, it was sketched at Infiniti's San Diego, California, studio by designer Randy Rodriguez. Final design work was done at Nissan's European studio in central London.

The technical authorship and development also comes out of the U.K. Nissan's European tech center is near Bedford, in central England, and the car is part of the British government's Technology Strategy Board initiative to hasten the arrival of low-carbon vehicles. As such, it uses many U.K. suppliers, including an engine and basic chassis from Lotus.
The rear wheels only are driven, explains Nissan Europe engineering chief Jerry Hardcastle, each one having its own 201-hp motor. The motors come from EVO Electric, a British firm that supplied them for an EV with onboard generation that just completed the Dakar Rally. In the Emerg-E, each motor drives through a single-speed transmission from Britain's globally dominant motorsport transmission specialist Xtrac. This arrangement creates effectively an open differential and reduces driveline friction.The battery is a 14.8-kW-hr unit, mounted behind the occupants along with the power electronics. Also back there is the 47 horsepower range extender. This is something Lotus has been working on for a while: a tiny and simple three-cylinder unit. It has been optimized to run between 1500 and 4000 rpm, sparing the need for variable camshafts and the like.
Top speed is 130 mph. Limiting it to that is bad for bragging rights, but otherwise good for the car's operation, enabling the little range extender to more or less keep up with the power required. (If the top speed were where the e-motors allowed it to be, then at steady high speed the battery would be replenished too slowly.) A comparatively low top speed also means the Emerg-E doesn't need the aggressive aero or cooling of a car designed to run at a 200-odd mph, nor big, heavy brakes. So it's sleeker-looking, probably handles better, and likely is more appropriate for real-world use. The only variable aero is a rear spoiler that deploys at 60 mph.To keep the weight off, the body is carbon - by Lola Composites - and the chassis structure extruded aluminum. That chassis happens to be derived mostly from a Lotus Evora, at least for the prototypes. That gives you a good clue as to the car's overall size.

Nissan's chief creative officer, Shiro Nakamura, was adamant that the Emerg-E's visual language should fit Infiniti's recent run of concepts, because he wants to prove the brand's design cues can work on many different types of vehicles.So we see Infiniti's familiar grille shape -- functional even though this is an EV, because the range extender and motors are liquid cooled. The exaggerated bone line drawn out of the surface of the body is another repeating cue. The side window graphic is also becoming an Infiniti property -- the reverse kink in its rear edge especially. That's even visible on a JX crossover. Nakamura is keen that his car is less brutal than most mid-engined machines. He says the air intake over the rear wheels calls to mind the neckline of a kimono.

Inside, the cockpit uses many of the tropes of EV concepts: blue pulsing ambient lights, graphic-heavy screen-based displays. The driver can call up info about range and environmental performance, or track maps, lap times, and instantaneous g readings. Leaf meets GT-R. A steely mesh floor makes it feel airy and fresh, while the roof is translucent and embedded with photovoltaic solar cells.As for Infiniti as a whole, the brand is busy expanding its range downward, with a Leaf spin-off (to be shown as a concept at the New York show in April, and a production car in 2014), and in late 2013 a new G, including a four-cylinder. In 2015, the plan calls for a compact car based on the Etherea concept design sitting on Mercedes' new front-drive architecture, thanks to the recent tie-up between Daimler and Renault/Nissan.
After all that, the space exists to do an Infiniti flagship. "We have to demonstrate that we exist," says Bancon. Will it be something like the Emerg-E? "We will take the decision two years from now. It could be this car. Or it could be a GT-R derivative. It could be one of two other ideas."We jump at the suggestion of a GT-R derivative, but he sounds a note of caution. "We're trying to find a way to use GT-R technology in Infinitis. But you change one thing, just one small thing, on the GT-R and [you find] it doesn't work at all."Besides, he says Infiniti's brand values are about sustainability with performance. That was the jumping-off point for this car. "It attracts attention not from noise but from silence."

The Emerg-E would make more sense in the US than Europe, given is limited top speed. Can you imagine Germans buying this when it goes *only* 130 mph? Other (Audi, M-B, Jaguar) electric/hybrid supercar options are much faster.All that said, the tech in this makes sense for more pedestrian models, with Lotus (typically) leading the way by contributing the light, simple 3-cylinder range extender. Makes tons of sense (and MPG) to use such an engine compared to, say, the Fisker Karma's turbocharged-4.

I just hate the front end. Gosh infinti couldhave just done something different with it. It reminds me of the older mc claren. The whole hybrid concept is pure nsx though. I guess making something better than the GTR would be a challenge.

Yeah right, Infiniti looked at the NSX concept and one month later designed this whole car. Get real man, this thing has been in the works for at least 2 years. The front borrows design cues form the Essence that came out in 2009.